Prime Minister Carney announces the largest investment in VIA Rail’s history to bring passenger rail car manufacturing back to Canada

In a rapidly changing world, Canada is setting a new course. We are building our strength at home, diversifying our trading relationships abroad, and investing in the infrastructure that will secure our future. We are moving fast, seizing new opportunities, and reducing our dependence on any single partner.

Through our Buy Canadian Policy, we are becoming our own best customer – contracting Canadian companies, hiring Canadian workers, and using Canadian steel, aluminum, and lumber. For too long, Canada has relied on other countries to build what we have the talent, expertise, and capacity to build ourselves. Much of VIA Rail’s existing fleet, for example, was built in the United States. Today, we are changing that.

The Prime Minister, Mark Carney, announced that, for the first time in four decades, VIA Rail passenger cars will be built in Canada. The federal government is investing more than $4.7 billion for VIA Rail to acquire and maintain 313 new passenger rail cars from Alstom Canada. The cars will be manufactured and assembled in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and La Pocatière, Québec, with design and engineering work taking place in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, Québec.

This is the largest investment in VIA Rail’s history and in Canadian intercity passenger rail in a generation. It will support nearly 700 good jobs in Ontario and Québec, and generate more than $1.6 billion in economic benefits. In line with the Buy Canadian Policy, Alstom will leverage and expand its extensive network of more than 900 Canadian suppliers in delivering the new fleet, while maximising the use of Canadian steel in structural assemblies, supports, and fabricated metal elements.

This investment comes at a critical time for Canada’s passenger rail network. In a country as vast as ours, reliable passenger rail is essential to keeping communities connected. Yet VIA Rail’s long-distance, regional, and remote fleet is approaching the end of its useful life, with some equipment more than 70 years old. Replacing that aging fleet will deliver safer, more reliable, and more modern service for Canadians – while creating good jobs and building more of what Canada needs at home.

Today’s announcement, combined with the federal government’s recent $1.95 billion investment in 45 new passenger rail locomotives and a new assembly and maintenance facility in Montréal, brings the federal government’s investment in renewing VIA Rail’s long-distance, regional, and remote fleet to more than $6.6 billion. Together, these investments will replace aging equipment and help ensure Canadians can rely on modern and reliable passenger rail service for decades to come.

In the face of global uncertainty, Canada is strengthening the industries, infrastructure, and supply chains that make our economy more resilient. By building these rail cars in Canada, we are investing in the transportation Canadians rely on, supporting Canadian workers and businesses, and building a stronger, more connected country.